Flowers blossom as USU Eastern joins the drive

Flowers are coming from all over into the Sun Advocate office for the No Grave Unadorned project.

On Monday afternoon, a flower party took place at the SUN Center on the USU Eastern campus. Students, from both the college and the high school, along with others made flowers all afternoon and hundreds of blooms were generated.

It is an ongoing process, as the Memorial Day holiday approaches.

Last year more than 1,500 people volunteered to make flowers and place them on graves in Carbon County. It was a resounding success story for volunteerism in the local community. The goal was to make sure every grave in every cemetery in Carbon County would have a flower on them for Memorial Day.

This year the goal is even bigger. Those helping with the program are determined to make enough flowers (40,000 in all) to cover graves in cemeteries in both Carbon and Emery Counties.

As of Wednesday, the count of flowers had gone to 14,000. That means we still need another 26,000 flowers.

Around town various groups are helping to make the dream come true. Everyone from boy scouts to women's groups, from churches to workplaces are making flowers.

Of course all this takes materials and while many have donated supplies, others have donated money to the cause.

The placement of the flowers will take place starting on Saturday May 21 and will proceed through the entire week until the project is done. That is projected to be on Friday May 27 just before the long weekend.

This is a one of a kind program that has no known equals in the United States. Eastern Utah is unique in many ways, and this is just one more example of that.

For information on donating or volunteering call Shayla Winder at 435 637-0732.